The invention relates to a seal arrangement of an anti-friction bearing that is inserted between a first bearing part and a second bearing part. The construction comprises a seal that encloses a support element surrounded on one side by an elastic sealant and also at least one sealing lip. The seal is positioned via the support element on the rotationally fixed first bearing part. The seal arrangement also encloses a thrower ring that is constructed as an angled ring and forms a collection chamber and is allocated to the second rotating bearing part, wherein a radial section of the thrower ring formed as a flange has a profile maintaining a sealing gap relative to the seal.
Seal arrangements with rubbing seal contacts of sealing lips are typically used for sealing anti-friction bearings, wherein the bearing parts to be sealed are opposite each other, in particular, in the radial direction. Such installation situations are known from various applications in automobile and machine construction, for example, in wheel bearings for passenger cars or commercial vehicles.
Similarly to anti-friction bearings, for wheel bearings constructed as angled contact ball bearings or conical roller bearings, an effective axial sealing of the rolling space, the interior filled with lubricant and containing rolling bodies, must be provided. For this purpose, it is known to use seal arrangements that enclose a thrower ring that is produced from sheet metal and forms a sealing gap with an end-side contour of the wheel bearing. Such seal arrangements also include sealing lips interacting with the rotating thrower ring.
From DE 10 2009 052 311 A1, a wheel bearing unit is known whose flange-side thrower ring forms axial surfaces for a rubbing seal contact of two axial sealing lips. The fastening area of the thrower ring forms, on the wheel flange side, in a transition area, a section extending radially. JP 2003 056 577 A discloses a wheel bearing arrangement in which an outer bearing ring forms a first bearing part that is sealed relative to the wheel flange, the second bearing part. For this purpose, a contact plate is provided that contacts the wheel hub or the wheel flange both axially and also radially and on which rubbing seal contacts are formed by an axial and a radial sealing lip. The sealing lips are here allocated to a support element attached on an inner side of the outer bearing ring.